Machine foe



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJ. S. STEDMAN, OF WEST MERIDEVN, CONNECTICUT.

MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING PORTEMONNAIES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,264, dated September 14, 1852.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN S. STED- AMAN, of IVest Meriden, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Presses and Their Appurtenances for Making Portemonnaies and Similar Articles; and I do hereby declare that the f ollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a perspective view of the bed of an embossing press with the clamp which holds the piece of leather or other material used for the side of the portemonnaie and the metal frame in which it is placed. Figs. 2 and 3, are sections of the same with the lower movable die in dierent positions. Fig. 4, is a perspective view of the clamp in which the leather and frame are held.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in each of the several figures.

This invention relates to certain means of inserting the leather or other material of which the sides of the portemonnaies and other simliar cases are made, in their metal frames, by which a great saving in manual labor is effected and the work performed in a better manner than by the common method.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is the bed of the press, in or near the center of which is an opening in which is tted a die or plunger B, which works freely up and down. The horizontal form of the said die is the same as the inside of the metal frame used for the side of the article to be made, but it is small enough so pass freely through the frame with the leather or material between it and the frame. The die B, rests on a ledge or shoulder h in the opening in the bed A, except when it is desired to raise it, when it is lifted by a block C, which is fitted in the lower part of the opening and rests upon a lever D, which works at one end on a fulcrum a; this lever rests at the end opposite the fulcrum on a suitable rest b, when it is not desired to raise the die.

E, E', is a clamp formed of two flat pieces of wood or metal hinged or otherwise connected together. The lower part E,

which lies on the bed A, has an opening c, through it fitting easily to the die B, which should work freely through it, and whose end or top face, should, when the lever D, is down or at rest, stand a little higher than the upper face of E, as shown in Fig. 2. The upper part E has an opening d, through it of the size of the embossing die F, which should be of the same form as the lower die B, but a little larger andr must work freely through E. On the underside of E, around the opening d, there is a small recess e of suiiicient size and depth to receive the metal frame g, in which the material is placed. The clamp is secured to the bed of the press by dogs f, f, of any suitable form which will admit of its being easily removed. The embossing die F, has any suitable pattern cut upon it to emboss the leather or other material, and may have pressure given to it and be otherwise suitablyv operated by any of the means usually employed in presses. The lower die B, may

be faced with soft metal, leather or any yielding material.

The operation is conducted in the following manner. The piece of leather, which is represented in Figs. 2, and 3, in red color, is first slightly damped and then laid flat between the two parts of the clamp; the frame g, is placed in the recess e, and the clamp is shut and placed on the bed A, as shown in Figs. l, 2, and 8, and clamped by the dogs f, f; the top of the die B, then is close to the back of the leather. The lever D, is neXt raised and the lower die B, being pushed up through the frame pushes the leather through it as shown in Fig. 3; the outer edges of the leather being held nearly flat or straight by the clamp. The embossing die is then brought down, and as it descends to the position'shown in dotted lines Fig. 2, it depresses the lower die B, and folds over that part of the leather which lies around the sides of B, when it is raised, close down over the frame g, as shown by the red dotted lines in Fig. 2, and 'when the lever D, is brought down to its rest b, and the die B, is firm, on the ledge fw, the embossing die gives the impression. After the embossing die is raised the dogs f, f, are unfastened and the clamp removed: the leather and frame are then taken out and another piece of leather and new frame are put in.

The common way of putting the leather in the frame is, after it has been embossed,

to fold it as neatly as possible over a piece of plate metal to give it the form it is to have when in the frame, then to take the metal out and draw the leather through the frame with the fingers; in doing this great difficulty is experienced in drawing the edges out neatly, and the edges require to be skived as thin as possible. No such preparation is necessary when the leather is put in as II 2. The form and construction of the clamp E, E, which holds the frame g, and the leather or material, to wit: the lower part E, having an opening o, just large enough to allow the die B, to pass through, and the upper part E, having an opening d, large enough to allowY the die F, to pass through and fold the leather or material over the frame, and having a recess e, in its inner or bottom face around the said opening d to receive and hold the frame in it, so that the leather or material is held independently of the frame and allowedr to be drawn through the frame substantially as herein described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name before two witnesses this 9th day of-April 1852.

B. S. STEDMAN. Witnesses:

T. E. DooLrTTLE,

N. A. STARKEY. 

